How does medical LOA (for mental health) affect an application with no academic red flags?

[Gorpu]

Hi, I'm an M2 planning on taking a medical LOA for mental health issues and want to get a sense of how this is going to affect my application going forward. Academically I've been strong since starting school but I made the mistake of putting off treating mental health issues and they've gotten to the point where I can't function day to day and are affecting other more important aspects of my life. If I come back and continue to do well (and am likely to have a few posters/publications come in during my LOA) how will this be perceived by PDs? Undecided on specialty but leaning EM/IM.

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[Goro]

First off, very sorry to hear about your troubles. But you are doing the right thing by taking the leave of absence, because that's what it's for.

From what I have seen with my own students, and with the comments from SDNers who have gone through the same experience as you, it won't be an issue. If anyone asks about the leave of absence, you just simply say that it was for medical reasons.

Go and heal, and come back stronger. Good luck!

 

[cj_cregg]

An LOA will be better for your application than the consequences of not taking care of yourself the way you need to! Do what you gotta do to be healthy, figure out what you need moving forward, and the rest will fall into place.

Worth noting that you do not necessarily need to disclose during residency applications that this was an LOA for mental health (unless one of your LOR writers or MSPE discloses it for you) - you can just say it was for health/medical reasons, the problem is resolved, etc.

If you have no other red flags and are a good applicant otherwise I don't imagine this would have an enormous impact on your ability to match....and if a program would have an issue with that, is that somewhere you'd want to be during residency, a very stressful time? Wishing you luck and healing!

 

[operaman]

Yeah an LOA if you state it was for mental health would be an application killer for many programs. But you’re under no obligation to fully explain your reasons. Just say it was for family illness or something not at all related to you. And obviously you want a strong showing otherwise. If you do that, nobody will look twice at your LOA.

Or you could be like lots of MS4s on Twitter who openly and proudly declare their mental health issues to anyone who will listen. They’re all taking an unplanned LOA after 4th year while they reapply to the match.

 

[GoSpursGo]

I agree with above--call it a medical LOA, and nobody should give you a hard time about it or inquire further. It clearly would be ideal if you could use that time to be productive in some manner like doing some research, but ultimately none of this matters if you burn out so you should do whatever you need to do in order to be able to finish this marathon of medical training.

 

[hallowmann]

Sadly I agree that you should absolutely only reference it as a medical LOA in residency applications and interviews. As a medical LOA without any other redflags it is unlikely to significantly affect your chances for residency. Take it now and take care of yourself.